An Ol' Broad's Ramblings

Archive for 7 September 2010

President Barack Obama boldly proclaims, “The buck stops here!” But, whenever his policies are criticized, he acts as if the buck stopped with George W. Bush.

The party line that we are likely to be hearing from now until the November elections is that Obama “inherited” the big federal budget deficits and that he has to “clean up the mess” left in the economy by the Republicans. This may convince those who want to be convinced, but it will not stand up under scrutiny.

No President of the United States can create either a budget deficit or a budget surplus. All spending bills originate in the House of Representatives and all taxes are voted into law by Congress.

Democrats controlled both houses of Congress before Barack Obama became president. The deficit he inherited was created by the Congressional Democrats, including Senator Barack Obama, who did absolutely nothing to oppose the runaway spending. He was one of the biggest of the big spenders.

I’m one of those people who is beyond sick of hearing “IT’S ALL BUSH’S FAULT!” I’m fairly sure I’m not the only one! Yeah, Bush was far from perfect, but then, is anyone perfect? Especially a politician? However, to consistently blame the previous administration for everything, is more than just childish. Immature, petulant, juvenile….I’m sure there are more words to describe such behavior, but I’m having a tough time coming up with appropriate words to describe what we’ve been seeing for the last 20 months.

So, the ol’ Ick in law has come out of hibernation, just in time for football season. Pfft! Typical! Anyway, he’s doing his infamous Ick’s Picks again this year. If you want to get in on the action, head on over to Ick’s Corner!

According to the Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released today, only 26% of voters think the economy is going to be better in the next year, and 61% think the country is on the wrong track. Desperate to show Americans he’s fighting “every single day, every single hour, every single minute” to turn the economy around, President Barack Obama unveiled yet another economic stimulus spending plan yesterday. This time the President is promising to spend $50 billion over six-years on a “Race to the Top”-style transportation pork plan that will fund pet leftist projects like high-speed rail. The President promised: “this will not only create jobs immediately, it’s also going to make our economy hum over the long haul.”

But even the President’s own officials aren’t believing the hype. Politico reports: “Under the best-case scenario, however, jobs would be created in 2011, the official said. ‘This is not an … immediate jobs plan. This is a six-year reauthorization that’s front-loaded,’ according to the senior administration official.” This Obama aide is half right: the President’s infrastructure plan will not create any jobs any time soon. As we have thoroughly documented before environmental regulations like the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) make it impossible for infrastructure spending to be implemented quickly. And even in the long run, as Heritage Foundation economist Ronald Utt has documented, the vast majority of independent academic and federal government studies show that the relationship between infrastructure spending and eco­nomic activity is close to zero.

President Obama, looking to stimulate a sluggish economy and create jobs, called Monday for Congress to approve major upgrades to the nation’s roads, rail lines and runways — part of a six-year plan that would cost tens of billions of dollars and create a government-run bank to finance innovative transportation projects.

I’d highly recommend Mr Obama read Atlas Shrugged. I can lend him my copy, book or audio, if he doesn’t want to spend more taxpayer money….for a change.

Central to the plan is the president’s call for an “infrastructure bank,” which would be run by the government but would pool tax dollars with private investment, the White House says. Mr. Obama embraced the idea as a senator; with unemployment still high despite an array of government efforts, the concept has lately been gaining traction in policy circles and on Capitol Hill.

If you had any doubts about D’Bama’s plans, this should surely open your eyes. Although, evidently, there are some who actually WANT the U.S. to be socialized, even though it has failed, time and time again.

“It will change the way Washington spends your tax dollars,” Mr. Obama said here, “reforming the haphazard and patchwork way we fund and maintain our infrastructure to focus less on wasteful earmarks and outdated formulas, and more on competition and innovation that gives us the best bang for the buck.”

But the notion of a government-run bank — indeed, a government-run anything — is bound to prove contentious during an election year in which voters are furious over bank bailouts and over what many perceive as Mr. Obama pursuing a big government agenda. Even before the announcement Monday, Republicans were expressing caution.

Please…someone clean the wax out of this man/child’s ears! NO! NO! NO! How many times do we have to say it? How loud do we have to get, before you start paying attention. You do NOT know what is best for this country. Being someone who did NOT grow up here, in your formative years, you are evidently working under the misguided notion that we would embrace a socialist regime. Just because there were so many who were duped by your smooth lies, does not mean they still have the blinders on!

Specifically, the president wants to rebuild 150,000 miles of road, lay and maintain 4,000 miles of rail track, restore 150 miles of runways and advance a next-generation air-traffic control system.

The reason we have a tire tax is to make sure our roads get built and repaired. Yes, we need infrastructure, we need bridges built and kept up, but what we do NOT need is the government’s fingers in every pie of our existence! I’d suggest that the government stop sending billions of dollars to prop up tin pot dictators around the world and use those funds for what the U.S. Constitution intended. Secure the borders, fight terrorists, of EVERY nationality here at home. (Has anyone added up the cost to taxpayers of all the ‘vacations’ the Obamas have taken since the coups d’état?)

The White House did not offer a price tag for the full measure or say how many jobs it would create. If Congress simply reauthorized the expired transportation bill and accounted for inflation, the new measure would cost about $350 billion over the next six years. But Mr. Obama wants to “frontload” the new bill with an additional $50 billion in initial investment to generate jobs, and vowed it would be “fully paid for.” The White House is proposing to offset the $50 billion by eliminating tax breaks and subsidies for the oil and gas industry.

Of course he didn’t offer a price tag. How could he? And we all know the government only creates government jobs at the cost to the private sector, which is where the tax money comes from. No one wants the rail system. Trains don’t go where people want to, and they are a waste of time and money. ( BTW, they tried that train idea in Milwaukee. It fell flat on it’s face! As best I can figure, the only people in support of this idea are government union types, who, let’s admit it, LIKE the idea of socialism, and living off the backs of those who actually WORK.)

The column goes on and on, with ever more creative ideas to sap the economy, and put more and more power into the hands of a central government, power that was never intended, must be stopped, AND reversed! The government, at any level, does NOT create jobs. It creates dependency.

When you’ve dug yourself into a hole, the SMART thing to do……STOP DIGGING!